


the problem with overachieving

by sleeping_dragons



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: and i havent read poa in a hot minute, but it is what it is, maybe a little self indulgent, this is purely platonic fluff they are children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:27:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24181312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeping_dragons/pseuds/sleeping_dragons
Summary: The problem with being the best is that you have to be the best.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Ron Weasley
Kudos: 3





	the problem with overachieving

Hermione sighed, leaning against the cool stone wall. Hardly anyone ever came up here, and hopefully they wouldn't start today. She dropped her bag with a dull thud and sat by it, trying not to think about the crumpled parchment in her hand.

 _Divination is a load of rubbish_ , she tried to convince herself. _Doesn’t matter if you didn't even get an Exceeds Expectations. And Trelawney is a fraud._

Not working.

Impulsively, she ripped the essay in half, eyelids stinging with tears she refused to shed.

"That’s' right, don’t hold anything back," said a voice, conversationally.

She whipped around, forcing the tears back. It was Ron. She glared at him. "Where's Harry?"

"Disappointed that it's just me?" he asked, looking a little insulted.

No. No, she wasn't. She didn't need someone else around to see her have a breakdown over _stupid divination_.

"What's wrong?" asked Ron in an uncharacteristically gentle tone. Was he concerned?

"None of your business," she snapped, stuffing the parchment back into her bag.

"Mione-"

 _Oh, what the hell._ She told him.

He stared at her for a moment. "It's still a pass," he said, as if it weren't obvious.

"Its _only_ a Pass!" She knew she sounded borderline hysterical now, but she couldn't bring herself to calm down.

" _I_ got a pass," he said, sounding slightly offended at that, but not at all bothered.

Of _course_ Ron didn't understand, her best friends had never cared much about grades. She picked up her bag, ready to go find somewhere else to be alone. Even Myrtle would be better at this point.

"Hermione. Listen to me. You're the smartest witch in our year, everyone knows that," Ron says, bewildered. "Anyway, you've never cared about Divination. That old bat's a fraud, you said it yourself-"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand. Now, _if_ you don't mind." She drew herself up, willing the tears to _go away, damnit_ , and marched away, leaving an extremely confused Ron.

"I don't get it, mate," he told Harry at dinner, which she was skipping yet _again_. "She's taking like a hundred classes and she gets worried over one mark?"

"Yeah, it's weird," agreed Harry.

"I mean, you saw how she was about the Grim, she thinks Trelawney's a fraud and Divination's useless, but the way she was going on-"

"You know how Hermione is," Harry said, vaguely. "She needs her grades to be perfect."

Ron gave up.

Hermione threw herself into her work over the next few days. To the casual observer, there would be no apparent difference, but Ron and Harry noticed her increasingly frazzled appearance. She was skipping more meals than usual to go study in the library now. The final straw came when she forgot to go to Charms.

Ron and Harry found her slumped on her open Arithmancy book, surrounded by stacks of notes full of numbers and symbols in her neat writing.

Before Ron could tell Harry to leave her to rest, she woke up with a start.

"Where were you? You missed Charms!"

"I missed Charms!" She raced out of the room, panicked, leaving the boys to look at each other in confusion.

"Right, this is an intervention." Ron waved a hand under her nose. " _You_ have been working entirely too much."

She shifted to turn away from him, making a huffing noise. "Leave me _alone_ , Ronald."

"They're not going to kick you out just because you didn't get an Outstanding in one test, you know."

She freezes, hand gripping a page so hard it crinkles.

"Hey," he says, gentler now, easing the book away from her carefully. "I'm just saying, you need a break."

"I can't." Hands and voice tremble. He couldn't possibly understand. She _had_ to be the best because she _could be_. Anything else would be a waste of what she had.

"You can't study if you're passed out," he tells her. "Careful, you'll tear the page."

She unclenches her fingers slowly.

"The book's still gonna be here tomorrow," he says encouragingly.

"I'm wasting time," she whispers, but her resolve is fading as she sags back in her chair, exhaustion catching up.

The common room is empty. She hadn't noticed that.

"It's late. You gotta sleep." Ron closes the book, adds it to her towering stack.

She opens her mouth to protest, but runes are still swimming before her eyes and she can't think of a reasonable reason why she should stay up any longer. When he nudges her, she lets him pull her up towards the foot of the stairs, where he stops. 

"Can't go up there," he mumbles, suddenly awkward. Then with a hint of his mother's voice: "You better not be studying up there."

She blinks at him, swaying slightly. Her head hurts. How long has it been doing that? Ron gives her a gentle push up the stairs, and she starts climbing, slowly.

She turns at the top of the stairs. He's still standing there patiently, waiting for her to go.

She's too tired to formulate what she wants to say in her head, only that it involves a 'thank you' somewhere -

"Go to sleep" He makes a shooing motion with his hands, and she smiles, feeling secure for the first time in days.


End file.
